I’ll be the first to admit it: I started experimenting with makeup in fifth grade. So for the longest time, I always saw makeup as a necessity each and every morning. Up to my freshman year of college, I was less worried about the health of my skin and more worried about the opinion of my peers.
I’m not sure exactly when it hit me, but one day I woke up and said to myself, “I really don’t want my skin to feel this way anymore.” Not only did I start to absolutely hate the feeling of my face being caked with beauty products every single day, but I also realized that I had lost the confidence to walk out the door without makeup. This is a sad truth that I’m sure many other young women have dealt with—but we shouldn’t have to! No matter what the media portrays as beautiful, every single one of us should love ourselves for who we are and be confident rocking a fresh face around campus.
Needless to say, I decided to challenge myself. I reduced my daily face makeup routine to one in which I applied minimal cover-up and just ahint of mascara. I’m not going to lie—I was a nervous, self-conscious mess at first (literally I wanted to put a bag over my head so no one would look at me). However, after two years I can say that the results have stuck and are spectacular!
Here’s what I learned:
When I wear a full face, I feel done up & amazing
It’s no secret that every girl likes to get fancy on the weekends! When I wore minimal makeup during the week, I found that on the weekends, when I splurged and rocked a full face (eyeliner, eyeshadow… maybe even a killer lipstick), I felt even more incredible than before! Not only did I feel better, but people took notice—and not in a bad way! It has been almost two years now, and the feeling I get when I rock a full face of makeup has yet to wear off.
My face feels more able to breathe
This one is so important to me—the less makeup that I applied to my face, the more that my skin could breathe (seriously, I swear I can feel the difference!). Nowadays, there are few things that I hate more than when I feel like my face is smothered with loads of concealer, powder, blush, bronzer, etc. It actually gives me a headache sometimes! I really don’t know how I used to wear so much all the time, but I am glad that those days are in the past.
My skin looks better
One of the most confusing paradoxes of being a woman is that we use makeup to cover up blemishes, which in turn creates more blemishes. I’ve done it, you’ve done it, we’ve all done it. The more makeup that’s applied to the face, the more challenging it is to remove it—this leads to irritation and inflammation that leads to breakouts. What I learned as a result of reducing my makeup is that my skin has been the clearest it’s ever been! Not only that, but since I have been seeing positive results, I have a newfound care for my health.
I save time (& money!!!)
Hello all you broke college girls—I am you!!! I can without a doubt say that reducing my makeup has (obviously? or not…) saved me so much money. I can’t lie, I’m a sucker for drugstore makeup; even so, I still find that my products last me so much longer. Also, I save so much time in the morning! A beauty routine which had taken me about 20 minutes every morning of every day of every year of my life since middle school now takes me about ten minutes at most. It may not seem like much of a difference, but we all know how much we cherish each extra minute in the morning.
Confidence, confidence, confidence
This is the MOST important thing I have taken away from reducing my face makeup—I feel more confident than I ever have in my life. It may have taken some time to get used to, but I can now honestly say that, while I generally opt for minimal application to highlight my face, I am totally okay with going makeup-free. There is an immeasurable amount of acceptance that comes with letting yourself just be yourself.
All in all, reducing my makeup has changed my life in so many ways. More than just my physical appearance, it has boosted my self-acceptance and made me a more confident individual in all aspects of life.
So, I challenge you! Try cutting down on the application of your makeup and see what happens. You never know—it may just change your life!